The crown prince's favorite girl, she found another good match

Chapter 33
Soon someone brought paper and ink, Qin Yongzhan printed his handprint on it, got the next batch of chips, and immediately invested in a new round of gambling.

Zhu Niang served Qin Yongzhan tea and water beside him, she was very attentive and gave him a word of encouragement from time to time.

This money is won and lost, and lost and won again, as if there is no end.

Whenever he won money, he would laugh loudly and feel proud, and when he lost, he would cry like crazy.

The doorman standing next to him looked at the situation inside and shook his head. It seemed that he was going to be crazy again today!

On a street in Beijing's North Street, an inconspicuous brothel was silent.

The morning is always the quietest time in these places, because the guests are still sleeping tiredly. They had a crazy night last night, and now is a good time to catch up on their sleep.

A man in casual clothes sneaked into the brothel quietly and lit charcoal on several corners of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Thick smoke came from all directions and floated into every room along the windows.

In her sleep, Mrs. Wu was extremely sensitive to smells. She huffed her nose and sat up after a while: What is this smell?
Before she could figure it out, the sound outside was like gongs and drums: "It's not good, it's not good! It's flooded! Come out and put out the fire!"

Suddenly there was a chaos in the building, and some people ran downstairs without even having time to put on their clothes.

More people panicked in the thick smoke, huddled together and frantically wanted to go down, and Miss Wu was among them.

In such a panic, these people naturally only wanted to escape quickly, and there was no time to think about putting out the fire.

The drummer saw that the crowd had almost dispersed, so he asked a man next to him with a badge on his waist, "My lord...you see, this person has almost dispersed..."

The man nodded, and five or six people similarly dressed came out from beside him, carrying an oil drum and spreading it around the building.

In just a few breaths, several people poured out several barrels of oil, and the man said: "Get out!"

Before leaving, he turned around and threw a fire stick. The flames jumped up the moment they touched the ground, and the surrounding area instantly became a sea of ​​fire.

The people who had just escaped from below were still wondering why there was only thick smoke but no flames. Before they could figure it out, the building in front of them was engulfed in raging fire.

Screams were heard all around, and people around came out to see the tragic situation. Several people tried hard to get water to put out the fire, but these buckets of water were a drop in the bucket and to no avail.

Clever people had already gone to inform the government office, but before the government office arrived, the building in front of it collapsed in the raging fire, and the people around hurriedly moved away.

Under the collapsed building, a hole suddenly appeared. It looked dark and scary, and the surrounding discussions became even louder.

The government office also arrived at this time, brought dozens of people and horses, evacuated some of the surrounding people, and brought some people in.

After a while, the leader looked solemn, and the people below came up carrying boxes of things. One of them was knocked over on the road, and the white money was exposed.

The people nearby were amazed that the cave down there was actually full of silver!
There were more than a dozen boxes carried out in the first round alone. Just thinking about how much money there was in that place was probably a very scary number.

Others were regretting that they had gone down boldly if they had known that the government office had not come just now, so it would have been a good idea to secretly grab a few.

In short, the news spread like wildfire that the collapsed brothel was actually filled with nothing but gold and silver. Before long, everyone in the capital knew about it.

Li Wangde was listening to the people below talking about this in front of his desk. He was so surprised that he dropped the teacup in his hand and the fine spring tea was scattered on the floor.

His beard trembled slightly: "Is this really true?"

The person below said: "It's absolutely true, sir. Everyone in the capital knows about this now, and many people watched helplessly as the people from the government office carried it up."

Li Wangde composed himself and said, "Let's go down first."

He stroked his forehead with a headache, and said without saying a word that the strange power was confusing the gods. He didn't really believe in gods and Buddhas.

But after all, I was still influenced by some old ladies. When I think about it, I can only think of gods and Buddhas.

How else to explain that the second daughter, who was raised in the boudoir, suddenly fell ill and started talking nonsense, and she was right about what she said this morning?
This is not a common thing.

But what if it was a coincidence?
Thinking of the next two things in her words, he still felt a little uneasy.

He called someone in and said, "Today, you go and watch Wang Yushi's mansion, and if there is any disturbance, come back and report to me immediately."

-

East Palace.

The man who had set fire to the brothel just now was kneeling in front of Zhao Yi: "Your Highness, the task has been completed. The total amount of silver produced in the cellar is approximately 3103 million taels."

3103 taels!

That’s almost half of the national treasury, which is an astonishing figure.

It took half a day just to count the money.

Zhao Yi said: "It should have been spread in the capital, next, let's take Wang Yushi's sacrificial knife first."

The person below said: "Then the others..."

Things and plans seemed to be progressing steadily. Zhao Yi put down his pen and said, "There's no rush now. Let's wait for them to take the bait one by one. It's time to clean up the worms in the capital."

After everyone left, Eunuch Huang said: "Your Highness, people from the Ministry of Etiquette have come here to urge you several times today, asking you when you will finalize the list of people who will enter the palace. Let's not talk about the princess for the time being. The concubine Liangdi who will enter the palace is also here. Make the roster early."

Zhao Yi tapped his slender fingers on the table: "Let's wait until Gu comes back from Jiangnan to make a decision."

The face that was humming and eating snacks flashed across his eyes again. He paused and asked, "Where is Li Baojia?"

Last time we had dinner, we were all alive and well, but why didn’t anyone come?
Huang Gonggong said: "It is said that he was infected with wind and cold and is recuperating at home."

Zhao Yi thought to himself, how could this little rabbit be so weak, having to recuperate every three days?

He said: "Then let's go and have a look in the afternoon."

Let’s see what happened to that cute little rabbit. Is he pretending to be sick again?

Huang Gao responded happily and went down to prepare supplements and medicines.

-

Just after noon, Zhao Yi, wearing casual clothes, and Huang Gao came to the door of Li's house.

The guard at the gate asked, "Who is your son?"

Huang Eunuch said: "Just say we are old acquaintances and let your master come and meet me."

Li Wangde was anxious in the study, waiting for news from the Yushi Mansion, when someone came down to inform him that someone wanted to see him.

He waved his hand a little irritably: "No."

The man below hesitated: "That old acquaintance who said he was the master..."

Li Wangde pinched his eyebrows and said, "Forget it, take the person to the main hall and wait."

When he arrived at the main hall, Zhao Yi was looking at the calligraphy and paintings hanging on the wall with his back to him. Just as he was about to go up and ask questions, he turned around and almost scared Li Wangde to his knees.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty, why are you here? I didn't send anyone to tell me so that I could go to the gate to greet you."

Zhao Yi shook his head and said with a slight smile, "I'm out for a walk today, I don't want to reveal my identity, I happened to pass by Li's residence, and I heard that Miss Li is ill, so I wanted to come and see."

Li Wangde was both happy and frightened: "This...this little girl is so virtuous and capable. If you visit her at this time, I'm afraid she'll be overtaken by her illness. It's better to wait for my little girl to get better before letting her go to the East Palace to thank His Highness."

(End of this chapter)